How to incorporate creativity into your life: obstacles to overcome, keys to start
- 2017
When we think about how to incorporate creativity into our lives, some branch of art usually comes to mind, often reserved for a few, with a natural talent for music, dance, sculpture, painting or theater.
But don't lose heart, we're all creative .
The universe itself, God himself, is creative. If not, how do you explain that it has taken the job of making each snowflake unique? Does each fingerprint different from another? Each animal and plant species, with all its infinite variety? That's how wonderful and perfect our world is.
And God, like every good father, has inherited among other things, creativity, the ability to create new and beautiful, and different things. Because creativity can manifest itself in thousands of different ways, I would say that each of us human beings has a unique way of giving our ideas to the world.
let yourself go
Creativity has three dimensions:
The Self : represents meditation, awareness and knowledge
Feeling : contains the aesthetic part of creativity, love and beauty
Acting : the action contains the manifestation of the creative: music, poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, technology.
Osho said that it is essential to be to create. Forget about trying to rationalize creation, you cannot think when you are performing a creative act . If you have to think and concentrate and think again, you will achieve a mediocre work. The philosopher, with all his intricate rationalization and thought, moves away from creativity.
When you let creativity happen to you, you start living. The ego dissolves.
The nature of the universe flows in you, as the river flows, like a channel that lets water enter and leave freely, without obstructing it with thoughts. This is how you will achieve extraordinary creations, connecting with the instinctive nature inside you, and leaving the door open to the creativity of the universe to be expressed through you. The less you think the more creative you are, you relax and let yourself be.
“A song will begin to arrive through you, a dance, a landscape. If you have to think about it it is mundane, it is common, but if you let it flow it is extraordinary. ” (Osho)
The five obstacles
However, we find stones that obstruct our path towards letting the creativity of the universe be, and they are:
1. Self-awareness : We relate the self-consciousness with the yo, the ego. This has made human beings worry about drinking without giving, accumulating, without letting flow. He does not understand that wealth is in giving, the universe gives. The ego closes, puts blocks, creates dams, does not allow the current to run its course.
Consciousness is wonderful, self-awareness binds us. Consciousness does not know the ego . He doesn't know about limits or borders. It is expansive and free. It has no conflicts, it is sky and sea, it is air. Give and receive to give again.
Therefore, one of the greatest obstacles to the flow of creativity is to shed self-awareness, of that perception of separation. Fame and money are for the ego, they will come if it should be, but first forget them .
2. Perfectionism: The artist is usually the most egocentric being on earth. He is arrogant and competes with others about the perfection of his work. Actually, those who acted like this are not true artists but great egoists who use art to praise their ego. They are more technical, that is, they use a technique to achieve perfection, the perfect poem, the perfect musical work. We could put as an example Salieri, a contemporary of Mozart, who despite having an exquisite technique, which demanded hours and hours of trial and error, could never get to have the esp Mozart's talent and talent, who simply felt the music in his body, in his spirit, running crazy through his veins . A brief improvisation by Mozart, far exceeded any work that Salieri had written and reviewed a thousand times seeking perfection.
Great artists know that they are flutes but the music is not theirs. It has flowed through them, but it comes from an unknown source. They did not resist - that's all - but they didn't create it.
That is the paradox, the true creator knows that he has done nothing.
3. Intellect : the intellect is what we find in the university postgraduate courses, egos that write boring theses that do not inspire anyone. That is not creativity. Intelligence, on the other hand, is different. Intelligence grows, expands, expresses itself . You don't need a doctorate to be smart. Intelligence is in line with universal intelligence, consciousness, she creates a Picasso, a Van Gogh.
Intelligence is in the heart, the intellect, in the head . Creativity will arise from your heart, your hands will create magic in what you touch and your voice will spill songs of happiness.
4. Beliefs: A creative will not have beliefs to cling to, he will only live by his experiences. They will give you their vision of the world, and there is always more to explore and to experience. Beliefs are closed and almost always imposed, organized by other people in the past. They are not in the here and now. The experience is always new, always renewable. It is not over, it has beauty, it can be traveled while there is life.
5. Seek fame: We have grown up seeking the approval of others, the eyes of others. We only do things if someone else is going to see or flatter her. We do it for recognition, not because we enjoy it. But when you forget recognition, you do something for the pleasure and joy that you produce yourself. You enjoy and LOVE what you do, even if nobody gives you a prize for doing it, even if they don't pay you for it. You live with joy in your heart, that's your prize, it doesn't matter if nobody knows. You are living your reward.
The human being has invented categories and prizes so that people are aware of them instead of doing what their heart dictates. Scientists want the Nobel Prize, the actors the Oscar, the singers the Grammy; the athletes, the gold medal or the best cup.
This system has destroyed the creative impulse of billions of people who stop loving what they do because they will never get a prize. They don't enjoy their quiet and peaceful work, because they don't get rewards or applause.
If you love your job, doing so is enough reward and recognition. Prizes are for those who do not love, who hate what they do, do not like and only do so because recognition will give them a place, will give them acceptance.
Therefore, do what you love, do what you want to do . When you find yourself seeking recognition or fame, think well, because that should not be your fundamental motive, or that it mobilizes you. Maybe you don't like what you are doing and you want something else inside of you, other music asks to be played, at some point you are not being happy with the activity you are doing.
Three keys that can show you the way
1. Become a child : young children are pure creativity, they are not ashamed of what people can say, they express themselves freely without prejudice . With schooling, we put them in molds and many times that creativity dies without limit. That is why the challenge is to be like young children, and to live creating.
2. Be willing to learn : the wise are aware of how much they need to learn, the knowledge we can access is infinite. Socrates said after years of seeking the truth: I only know that I know nothing. On the contrary, the ignorant, the egocentric thinks he knows everything .
3. Find heaven in the common: creativity is not associated with any particular activity. A gardener grows beautiful flowers and incredible gardens, a farmer provides food to our community, like the sweeper who collaborates with the cleanliness and order of the city, or a mother when she carefully takes care of her children. They are all creative expressions because they are performed with deep love. If with love you clean your home is creative, if you do it without love, it is only a task.
Similarly, if you want to paint a picture and do it without love, it will be a task, a technique, it will not be creative.
Let the ego go and be creative everywhere, at all times, live your life with love.
You may be a cook and show your creativity, or doctor, or airplane pilot, there can be creativity in any activity. We don't need everyone to be painters or singers. The world needs gardeners and lawyers and architects and farmers, and fashion designers and teachers. Everyone can be creative as long as they let nature flow into their being.
In other words, when you combine the clothes you are going to wear, or if you have designed a birthday card for someone, when you take a photo or make a video, or personalize your mobile or laptop, you are creating . You also do it when you solve a problem at work, or cook something with a personal touch. The creativity you use when performing these activities gives you happiness and satisfaction.
But ... do you feel you should express yourself in any branch of art?
If you are one of those people who feels inspired to perform artistic works such as painting or drawing and you have not yet sat down to do it, well, your muses will not appear out of nowhere. These tips will help you get down to work:
1. Stop procrastinating!
When the artist in you feels that tingling that tells him to take a pencil and paper, you will find any excuse for not doing so. Anything will be more important than letting out what you are not expressing. Even scrubbing the kitchen floor or fixing your nails will serve as an excuse! Give yourself your time, meditate a few minutes if necessary, focus on that intuition, on that need to express.
2. Resistance
Change is uncomfortable, especially when you take a risk and no longer hide, you come to light. Every cell in your body resists. You will face an internal conflict, interruptions, excuses, doubts. The muses have hundreds of stories, songs, paintings to offer the world but will do so through those people who get down to work regularly.
3. Doubts of your own ability to create
You hate everything you believe, you don't think you have a pinch of talent. You think it's better to abandon all those crazy ideas. The good news is that it will improve, it will be easier. You must get in action. It takes time to go from being scared and doubting why you want to do this to express your creativity. How many hours have you spent on your passion?
So thank you for everything you write, draw or paint, even if almost everything has ended up in the recycling bin. Keep doing it, enjoy it, the more you do it, the faster the good will come.
Finally, I propose a creative project
Write an invocation to the muses!
Create an invocation to inspire you. Here is the one created by Pam Grout, author of Art and Soul Reloaded :
Or great muses, I open up to be your channel. I put aside my preconceived notions about myself, about the world and about what I am destined to write (paint, draw, here is your call). I surrender to your wisdom. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to receive and transmit your gifts. I release my gifts to go out and bless the universe.
Creativity is allowing nature to manifest through you. Give yourself permission to let flow, to be an open channel that manifests the creativity of the universe.
You dare?
EDITOR: Carolina Cobelli, editor of the Great Family of the White Brotherhood
SOURCE: Osho International Foundation. (1999). Creativity, unleashing the forces within. New York: St Martin`s Press.
